Kat_Mac wrote:I've been attempting to re-read that too, but the only time I have for reading lately seems to be on my lunch break, which isn't exactly good reading time! Did you start HP?

Eurgh, fun plans are for people with lives! Again, I've been so busy. February was horrible; everything that could go wrong pretty much went horrifically wrong. When it rained, it monsoon-ed. Zach and I had a series of arguments which were awful, school got very stressful with planning, and we had some bad news in the family so I'm only just back from home again to carry on with university and school. I'm hoping March is kinder!

How have you been? Have you been working much, or teaching?

Hey good to see you back around! Was wondering where you'd wandered off to hope everything is okay with your family and that you and Zach are okay. Life sounds stressful for you! Hope it gets better!

I've been focusing on studying so no HP yet..just don't see the time yet since I'm working for my FILs accounting business through the end of tax season..maybe this summer when things settle down. Jason has been so busy with work himself I gotta keep the house in order!

I take it you're deep in the middle of student teaching? I'm not subbing yet, though I did call the coordinator and ask to be put back on the list again so we'll see.!

Have you been seeing all the Catching Fire promo hoots going around? Pretty cool

Not so much wondered off as tried to bury my head in the ground! Everything is getting back to normal (well, back to the routine), it's just horrible now feeling like you're waiting for the phone to ring and deliver bad news. We found out that one of our relatives hasn't got very long left, to put it bluntly. It wasn't a huge surprise to my parents, but none of us kids knew that he wasn't well, so it's come as a shock. Zach and I argued over that (being back home but not being able to see him properly wasn't something that he dealt with very well, so the arguments weren't pretty) but I think we're getting back on track now. It's just strange to know that we're not really 100% and we're too far apart to deal with it properly. I hope it gets better too! Mostly I'm just trying to ignore the world, haha. Distraction is very helpful, so I'm glad for how busy school has been. I've been teaching a fair bit, yeah, and I've got a lot to make up for from the time I had off to go back home. Luckily my school and tutors have been really understanding and they're helping me to catch up.

Oh, so you've got a lot more hours at the FILs? Extra money must be helpful, and the books will always be around when you have time! Hopefully you'll get a call about subbing too do you know what age you'd be subbing for, or is it totally random?

Yes I've seen them! I think they're amazing. Both Effie and Katniss creeped me out a little, but in an appropriate-for-the-subject way. Katniss and Peeta look like they've been posed up as victors, which I think has worked really well! What did you think of the first look at Sam as Finnick??

Oh no that sounds awful :/ sorry to hear! Hopefully you and Zach will be able to figure things out! I hate things like that :/

Yeah, my FIL is an accountant and tax season lady's until April 15th here so I'm busy helping in the office. It's pretty cool when I get sub calls I know what school it's for and I like working with the elementary school kids. If I decide to teach though I think I will go with 3-4 year olds are you due to graduate this summer?

I'm highly impressed with Sam as Finnick! It's how I pictured him- tall, with a swimmers body and blonde highlights

Yeah I hope we will too! It's just proving really difficult, with the distance and the fact that his family have got in the way :/

Least it's a job you sort of enjoy! And decent money I'd guess? I can understand why you'd want to teach 3-4 year olds, they can be so enthusiastic about learning! It gets more difficult when they get older to engage them I think. I'm finishing in summer yeah, I still have to come back for the actual graduation ceremony though next year. Strange university system where you get your actual graduation several months after your course finishes!

I like Sam for Finnick too. The pictures have got me really excited for a trailer!

My school is like that too-I'll submit my test score right after the graduation deadline for this May so I won't actually formally graduate until this summer. I won't be doing the ceremony as my school is based in Virginia. I'm trying not to think beyond tax season- too much to do!

I'm really curious to see how well Sam handles the dramatic scenes in Mockingjay..they better leave in the rope knotting scene!

He was supposed to come over the weekend after I came back, but he didn't come. He came over last week instead, so it had been a couple of weeks between us seeing each other. We're not back to normal, but we're sort of getting there. I'll see him next when I go home for the holidays in a week. I think it'll be good as we'll be able to get back on track, but I'm hugely not looking forward to feeling in the middle of him and his family. That is a drama that does not seem to be ending.

Ooh, those deadlines are unlucky timing for you! Are you doing anything special to celebrate graduating, as you won't be going to the ceremony? Tax season must be a nightmare! I hope you're staying relatively sane throughout!

Yeah, I have a feeling he'll be better at the dramatics than he will at Finnick at his most arrogant, for some reason. It'll be strange to see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss again now, too. She's so much bigger over here than she was for Hunger Games, when she was almost unknown in the UK.

This week is pretty good so far. School is hectic, which is good as it's distracting! The children are really hyped up for the Easter holidays soon, and a trip we're going on tomorrow. 60 excited children in an interactive museum should be fun How's things with you now?

Kat_Mac wrote:He was supposed to come over the weekend after I came back, but he didn't come. He came over last week instead, so it had been a couple of weeks between us seeing each other. We're not back to normal, but we're sort of getting there. I'll see him next when I go home for the holidays in a week. I think it'll be good as we'll be able to get back on track, but I'm hugely not looking forward to feeling in the middle of him and his family. That is a drama that does not seem to be ending.

Ooh, those deadlines are unlucky timing for you! Are you doing anything special to celebrate graduating, as you won't be going to the ceremony? Tax season must be a nightmare! I hope you're staying relatively sane throughout!

Yeah, I have a feeling he'll be better at the dramatics than he will at Finnick at his most arrogant, for some reason. It'll be strange to see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss again now, too. She's so much bigger over here than she was for Hunger Games, when she was almost unknown in the UK.

This week is pretty good so far. School is hectic, which is good as it's distracting! The children are really hyped up for the Easter holidays soon, and a trip we're going on tomorrow. 60 excited children in an interactive museum should be fun How's things with you now?

Oh family drama is the worst- I so sympathize! I'm glad he got to come up and visit..the busier I get the more I realize how much time together really helps! How long is your holiday?

Tax season isn't that bad now that they're aware of how hard I'm studying they work around my schedule which is nice! Being over my cold helps as well and I'm trying to remember to study whenever I have a free moment!

Oh my, 60 kids at a museum? Sounds chaotic! Hope you survived! I'm glad school is so distracting, how does Zach handle all the drama? Is student teaching going well?

I've never seen Sam in anything so I'm not sure how he'll do. Jennifer won an Oscar and is also in the X-Men prequel movies so she's absolute huge!

Time together really does help! Hopefully we can get back to a solid place over the holidays. I'm home for a fortnight, a much needing the holiday at this point haha!

That's nice, that they're working around you. How's the studying going? Colds are the worst, hopefully you can get rid of it instead of finding that it's lingering!

The museum trip was really fun in the end! Though I think the museum staff hadn't planned properly for such young children. There were lots of other schools on the same trip, all older than our children, and that made things really hectic! Some of the activities weren't really suitable for children so young so we had to adapt their schedule a little. Things worked out fine in the end, though. Student teaching is going really well, I'm sort of gutted that it's my last week for a while! When I break up from the holidays it's more studying at university than teaching in a placement for a while. I'm going to try to get back to visit school, volunteering on my days off, but it's whether or not I can find the time that'll be the problem!

Zach isn't the best with it. He's very non-confrontational, which has just led to him not knowing how to deal with confrontation. He gets wound up and says things he shouldn't, then realises how bad it is and instead of dealing with it, he runs away, which drags it out. It's easy for me to grab him and make him talk things through, but it's the fact that he doesn't seem like he wants to change things that should be changed that's the problem. And then he talks to his family and they get carried away trying to get involved, and Zach tells me things that they've said about me, and they get mad that he's told me instead of being sorry that they said them. Just like him, they'd rather brush it under the mat than actually deal with being wrong.

I'd only seen her in X-Men so I knew who she was, but she wasn't really big over here on her own rights. Now she's really well known and obviously I know a lot more of her from the Oscar footage and stuff, it's going to be really different seeing her as Katniss again! Though I'll probably just be really biased to her performance anyway seeing as she's really grown on me after seeing interviews. I've seen Sam in Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and in Snow White and the Huntsman, and he seemed like an okay actor. Hopefully with a much bigger role in Catching Fire he'll stand out and perform really well. I'd hate to see Finnick be lost in the performances of the huge cast because Sam can't pull it off!

Oh two weeks sounds lovely what a good amount of time! Hopefully that'll give you guys plenty of time together! It takes time to figure out how to handle stressful situations..it took me a long while to stop being someone like Zach and rather handle problems. Families tend to stick together and want to protect their own, whether they're wrong or right. That has to be frustrating and hurtful :/

Ugh, I remember at the end of my student teaching/observation I was so exhausted and dragged myself through finals. It was crazy. Good luck

My cold has gone away and work has settled down a bit so I was able to get quite a lot of studying done over the weekend, despite that we had two celebrations for Jason's grandma who turned 90, so that makes me feel more confident to schedule the test soon and actually take it!

I didn't consider that there is so much drama for Finnick, especially in Mockingjay, and I really hope Sam does well. I'm not even sure what he's been in. I'd never heard of Jennifer before she got the role but I'm excited to see Silver Linings Playbook when it releases on DVD. I realized much later I'd seen Kristen in In the Land of Women, which was an odd quirky comedy with Adam Brody and Meg Ryan (post lip job, she looks odd!). Little indie films that are weird can be fun!

We broke up half-day from school so I'm officially off for a while! Exciting times haha. I head off home tomorrow. It'll be good to see him and test the waters on if we can be okay again instead of just over video chat, but I'm dreading everything with his family. You're totally right in what you said!

It's been a crazy week, but a good one. I have some studying and work to get done over the holidays though, as I missed a week and all. But at least I can get it done in my own time!

Wow, that was a crazy productive weekend for you, well done you! Did you enjoy her birthday celebrations? When are you thinking you'll schedule your test? At least you know you're more prepared now!

Did you see Snow White and the Huntsman? I didn't think much of the film, but Sam was okay in it. I haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook either so I'll be getting that on DVD! I've heard so many good things about it but I just didn't get around to seeing it. I hadn't seen Kristen in anything other than Twilight, but after seeing her in that I watched a couple of her movies. Speak was pretty powerful. I saw In the Land of Women! Once I realised Adam Brody was in it I made sure to it was exactly that, odd and quirky. Overall I think Kristen's best performance was in The Runaways. The stuttering and stuff through Twilight does sort of bug me.